Practicum: TCCMC Advertisements
Greetings and salutations all worldbuilders galore! Today is yet another time for a practicum, and unfortunately, it is another Anne one. Yeah, cry me a river.
I have my universe Stellima– excuse me? What do you mean, what is Stellima? How do you not know this, it is on my site? Anyway, a ubiquitous item that exists are the so-called “cognichips,” which are like your human microchips but on super-steroids. Ubersteroids? Whatever! It makes your puny things look bad! Similar to real life, a singular company accounts for over 95% production of them: Tshutsi CogniChip Manufacturing Company, or TCCMC. Oh, you think the name is unoriginal? Well, most of your wretched cheap bad chips are made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, TSMC! Anyway, Anne here, Lady Verbosa, my beloved sister, will use them to show how to do advertisements in a neat manner. Anne, GO!
(Anne:) Thank you Vivian! I’m honored to take over and expand something from your universe with my own words and ideas! I’ll be examining the most influential ad campaign in Stellima’s history (well, at least that anyone remembers!), which is TCCMC’s “Trust X” campaign. Let’s get started, shall we?
Review: Advertisements
Okay, hopefully you’ve all read my post on advertisements, what they are, how to design them, and how to use them. If not, you might sneak a peek. Basically, when you’re designing an ad, you want to figure out your audience first, and also figure out what you’re trying to say or sell. Then, you want to figure out how you’ll get your message to your audience. These three things are the rhetorical situation.
Next, you’ll want to figure out the ad itself. In the post on advertisements, I give a checklist of things to include. Basically, there are three scene components (character, setting, and action), and six creative elements (tone, mood, color, arrangement, text, and sound). When you design an ad, you want to pay attention to all of these and make deliberate choices that will appeal to your target audience.
And finally, you want to be aware of what kind of appeal to your audience you’re making, whether it’s a logical appeal (logos), an emotional appeal (pathos), or whether you’re building up your credibility to appear ethical (ethos). So those are the basics of ad design. The post goes into a ton of details on the purpose and use of ads, which I’ll just sort of layer through this practicum as opposed to spelling it out here. But I wanted to explain the rhetorical situation, scene components, and creative elements first so that you know to pay attention to them, and be able to understand logos, pathos, and ethos. On to the actual ads!
A New President Enters
For a long time, TCCMC was one of those companies that didn’t advertise. Why would they? Cognichips are used in everything and allow people to connect to the cognisphere (think the internet in all its forms, like websites plus searches plus news plus businesses plus shopping plus social media plus video games etc. etc., only a hundred times better and with all of the flaws removed and a heavy focus on privacy because Vivian is an idealist so everything works perfectly 😁😉). Although some cognichips are produced by companies other than TCCMC, they’re few and far between. TCCMC has a pretty firm hold on production, everyone knows to buy from them, and everyone across known space buys. So why advertise?
Well, no one in the company really saw a need until a moderately popular president retired and was succeeded by his daughter, Tthakira. The company is dynastic, essentially, though not by decree or anything. The family just raises their children to do well in the company, then they’re on their own to succeed or fail without assistance from the family name. Children can go off and do other things, too, of course. Tthakira and her brother both started working for the company, but Tthakira put in hard work and remained dedicated, rapidly advancing through the ranks, and her brother attempted to use his family connections to get ahead without doing the work. Since the role of president is voted on by a board, who themselves are voted in by shareholders, who aren't swayed by last names and look only at success, they choose Tthakira to take over after her father retired.
Anyway, there’s always uncertainty with changes in leadership, and Tthakira is extremely clever. She had a plan. Without the board’s knowledge, she gathered a few people from marketing and put together an ad that started a campaign that would change Stellima forever.
Alpha Ad: “New Leadership”
This is the very first ad that Tthakira wrote and starred in. While her marketing team assisted with the details, the main idea was hers. Similarly, Vivian came up with the core of this ad and the dialogue, while I will be fleshing it out from a skeleton to a complete ad.
Rhetorical Situation
While you want ads to be as narrowly focused as possible, some ads do aim broadly, and this is one of them. The main audience is Tshutsi adults, specifically employees or shareholders, who have a vested interest in TCCMC thriving and who might be worried about a change in leadership at the company, since in the past, changes in leadership have accompanied shifts in pricing and employment. This audience is educated and open-minded, but worried. The goal of the ad is to reassure people that the new president will continue the popular policies of the previous administration and continue to advance the company.
The ad is also meant to introduce Tthakira as a hands-on president who will be personally involved in the company, a change from previous presidents. This ad reached this audience through the cognisphere, at first shown only within the Tshutsi system where TCCMC makes up a substantial part of the economy between and during media featuring local news and media about economics, then later on planets with high concentrations of TCCMC employees between and during media with an emphasis on interstellar news and large-scale economics, then to more and more places between and during a variety of media as the ad campaign grew more and more popular. From this, you can see how the ad first hit the primary audience, then reached out to more and more people. It’s really important to realize that while all ads need to have a focused audience, they can reach huge swaths of the population if done well.
Walkthrough
The scene opens in a standard factory cafeteria with the TCCMC logo prominently displayed in various places. A wide camera shot reveals most of the room, which is crowded with people in dark green TCCMC uniforms. About half of the people are Tshutsi and the other half are a mix of other species. The music is quiet but chaotic, with several threads of a melody winding together with occasional clashing notes. The reds are oversaturated and orange lights along the ceiling give an air of warning. The audio begins with blurred noises of a busy room, but it’s clear that everyone is worried from their dark tones. The people get their food and gather in groups, looking around nervously. No one in the shot looks comfortable. The camera zooms in to a projection of the stock market on one person’s linkpad on their table.
As the camera zooms in, it fades to the same projection of the stock market and pulls back to a dark, mostly grayscale room of an older Tshutsi studying the market. The music slows and coalescences into a unique melody in a slow, minor key. He sighs as the camera pulls back to show him standing in front of a door in an office building. He flips the projection off, then opens the door. The camera follows him from behind as he enters a room filled with professionally dressed Tshutsi with a few individuals of other species, all in neutral and natural colors as the grayscale fades into cold-tinted color to indicate a serious mood. The camera rotates around the outside of the room until it faces the older man, who some viewers may recognize as the president.
The president opens his mouth, and the camera zooms out to reveal that the image was a projection on the linkpad of the worker from before. No words are audible from the president as the din of the cafeteria returns along with the more chaotic, quick-paced music. Two Tshutsi sit looking at the projection, then look at each other. One of the orange lights in the upper right of the screen is fluctuating slightly.
Tshutsi 1, an orange and white striped male in a fearful voice: Is he really stepping down? I always felt comfortable knowing he was in charge.
Tshutsi 2, a gray and red striped female in a nervous voice: He says to pick the best possible person, but who could possibly replace him?
The camera zooms in on the projection, now showing the board members, and fades back into the meeting room. Projected on the background to the left is the stock market going down rapidly, with orange and yellows emphasized, and in the foreground to the right is a list of names with a bar graph showing their current shareholder’s confidence. In front of the stock market and behind the projection of the vote are the shareholders in the process of voting using their links. Their colors are neutral in colder blue tones that contrast with the sinking stock prices, and the music slows to a vibrato with staccato notes punctuating through the melody from before as if counting. In the foreground, in bright white letters are eight names, and the two in the center share the family name of the former president. The bar for one, a man, is energetic green, and the bar for the other, Tthakira, is serene blue that’s warmer than the cold tones of the room. Those two numbers seem to match, then, as more people vote in the main image, the blue bar skyrockets up. The numbers settle, and 47% is displayed for the brother and 89% for Tthakira. A chime indicating success sounds, and the music becomes a friendlier but still chaotic rhythm.
The stock market slows its descent but continues to fall as the camera zooms in on Tthakira, a light green and blue striped Tshutsi female dressed in a formal jade green jacket the same hue as the workers in the cafeteria. The TCCMC logo is on her right breast pocket over her heart. She looks from left to right, and as she does, the camera again zooms out to reveal the workers watching on the projection. The voices have all fallen silent as all of the workers are watching her, and the music dims to a quiet buzz. The orange lights are less reddish than before, with less of a note of warning, and the warmth of the room contrasts with the background on the projection.
On the projection, which takes up a fourth of the screen towards the lower left, Tthakira smiles and opens her mouth. The workers sitting at the table in the rest of the screen lean closer, worry on their faces.The music dims and buzzes with anticipation.
Tthakira: “A new era begins now.” The music, rather than uptempo, disordered melodies, settles into a single melody and chord progression in a major key, giving the feeling that she’s making sense out of everything that has been happening. A surprised murmur of voices breaks through the scene as the camera quickly pans out, the projection getting blocked by bodies. The music includes more brass as if to announce someone’s entry. With the entire room in view, Tthakira is visible at the door. She makes her way through the crowd, talking and shaking hands, and sits next to the two Tshutsi who were worried before. They look stunned, and she places a hand on the table. The music is friendly and inviting now.
Tthakira: “Change is scary. I'll be there every step of the way to assure everyone.” The workers look at each other, and everyone starts to smile. The orange lighting develops a golden glow, and the greens in the uniforms are more pronounced as the mood becomes reassuring. The walls, instead of looking gray, now have a blue sheen to them.
Tthakira: “Times change.” She looks into the camera directly as it zooms to her face, and she points into the screen. “Trust never changes.”
The music peaks with those words, then plays the melody a single time more on piano as the screen fades to black with the logo large and centered. At the end of the melody, the screen fades to black.
(Audience: 👏👏👏👏👏)
Explanation
Looking at a basic breakdown of how the ad appeals to the audience, we start with characters. The workers, who are one intended audience, are primary, and reflect the Tshutsi who make up the bulk of the audience. The other part of the audience, the shareholders, are also represented. Showing characters similar to your audience helps them relate. The other main character, Tthakira, is extremely important, because she’s the new president putting herself forward as a candidate of and for the people. This gets into setting, with the ad transitioning between the setting of the boardroom and the cafeteria, formal and informal, cold tones with warm. This also shows the similarity in concerns despite differences between people. Everyone is worried about the stock market, and everyone wants a good president to be chosen.
In terms of creative elements, the mood shifts throughout, mirroring people’s concerns and encouraging optimism with Tthakira’s election. This is also reflected in the colors, which, in the cafeteria, begin with reddish tones indicating warning but soften into a warm glow of hope. In the boardroom, the cold tones also warm, with the same effect. Two things are emphasized in terms of arrangement: the stock market, and people. Both become the center and focus of the shots in both settings, again showing the two concerns people have in this situation. The final closeup shot of Tthakira emphasizes how she views herself as integrally involved in the company’s future. While there is no written text, the spoken language is on point and direct, and of course introduces the famous “Trust X” slogan which will continue throughout the campaign. The music also introduces the melody and chord progression which will be in every single ad, giving them unity.
The music is actually a key reason why the ad took off. While preparing the ad, Tthakira realized that she needed something more than a catchy slogan to get people’s attention. She scouted local music groups to find someone who was relatively unknown but had the potential to go big with the right opportunities and hired them to create and record the music. Then, before the ad was released, she arranged for an interview between them and the biggest name in television. Think Oprah, for us on Earth. As Tthakira said, “Either they do well and everyone drops everything to hear their original music for our ad, or this is a nice gesture and we get a catchy melody for our campaign.”
Well, the group took off, and when the ad was released two days later, and people recognized the musical style and realized it was their new favorite group, audiences tuned in. The musical group, rather than appealing to teens and very young people, appealed to a slightly older crowd, as that is the audience (employees and shareholders). In addition to boosting the ad, this promotion also filled a need in the musical community, and the group went on to be one of the best-known Tshutsi bands in known space, always crediting their success to Tthakira and TCCMC.
Anyway, that’s one reason this ad took off. But while the music caught people’s attention and the creative elements made people feel the worry and resolution that the ad creates, the real strength is the slogan, which only built in effectiveness as the campaign continued. Even this first one made an impact, though, as can be seen from reactions at the time. Years after the first ad aired, the Tshutsi Independent Press did a showcase on the campaign and interviewed people who were employees at the time. One interview with a Tshutsi floor manager who owned some stock in the company at the time and was a third generation employee summed up most people’s reactions:
Reporter: When the previous TCCMC president stepped down, how did you feel?
Floor manager: Me and my pops were pretty worried cuz of the market, but then we sorta calmed down.
Reporter: Why is that?
Floor manager: That ad that went round just after she took office. Something ‘bout her mannerism and saying made me know she'd keep us safe. I guess, well, I trusted her. And ya know, not long after, the stock market recovered, and now my stock is worth quite a bit that I can give to my kids.
As you can see, the ad had a huge influence on how Tthakira was perceived and started the process of building trust for herself and the company, which we’ll talk about next!
“Trust X” Begins
With that momentous beginning, Tthakira set a new ad campaign into motion that continues to revolutionize how advertising is done in Stellima. The “Trust X” campaign creates a coherence to TCCMC advertising, and when it was introduced, the existing marketing campaign was blown away by the reaction. In the article on the campaign, one of the executive marketers, now retired, reflected back on how people in the company felt:
Reporter: The first ad was completely different from previous marketing, which was almost nonexistent. How did you feel when it came out?
Executive marketer: Honestly? It was a mixed bag of emotions. I’m glad that someone finally saw the value of what I had been trying to say, but also? (She laughs) There was a bit of professional jealousy, and concern. Would she get rid of the current team?
Reporter: And did she?
Executive marketer: Oh, no, she brought us all along. Working on that campaign was one of the best experiences of my life! Who could have predicted that this would come to pass?
As you can see, Tthakira integrated the campaign into the company in a way that encouraged existing employees–one of the key messages of that first ad–and promoted company unity.
The “Trust X” ads varied in their design and appeal, with a multitude of audiences and styles that I’ll get to in the next section, but all shared a common structure: something happened, then Tthakira appeared at the end either in person or via voiceover to comment on the situation. Each ad ended in the famous “Trust X” slogan, with the X being different in every ad.
One decision that kept the marketing team on their toes was a quirk of Tthakira’s that she refused to let anyone write the final line, the actual “Trust X.” She ad-libbed all of them! A very impressive feat, especially considering that there were almost no repeated terms over the course of the campaign. This was a way to show that the ad wasn’t a canned message but a genuine emotion that she herself thought and believed, until the end when the final take was made in the powerful final ad that we’ll talk about at the end. Fun side note: some places offered betting on what the next slogan would be, and it was common for people watching new ads to try to guess the “Trust X” based on the opening.
The “Trust X” slogan focused on things other than the company (“trust hope,” “trust workers,” “trust your passions,” for example), which also bolstered their credibility and ethos. By not encouraging people to trust the company directly, she made it clear that this wasn’t a campaign to drive up their bottom line and profit. It was about encouraging a better world for people. In the post on advertising, I talked about how ads seek to associate their product with things people associate as “good,” and these ads did exactly that. They said to trust things that almost everyone would agree were “good” values or beliefs, and by showing that the company valued similar things, people grew to respect the company (and Tthakira, of course!).
That last point is important. Not only did TCCMC look good, but Tthakira also gained huge ethos. People believed in her personally and felt personally connected. TCCMC wasn’t some abstract corporation; it was a person, a face, a voice. Through the ads, the audience came to know who she was and what she believed. And throughout these campaigns, people came to view her as an integral part of TCCMC, and thus, any company failure was her failure. She chose to put her name, face, and life on the line for something, which increased the company's credibility. People felt a personal connection. I’ll talk more about that when discussing the final ad!
Logo
One other thing ties everything together in addition to the slogan and the music, but this was around since the company’s founding and wasn’t designed by Tthakira. TCCMC has a distinct logo that resembles the shape and structure of a simplified cognichip. The colors are intended to be fairly neutral to emphasize the company’s stance on neutrality, and also represent natural colors from the environment to highlight how the company sees itself as blending technology and nature together by bringing technology to people across known space. The golden-yellow along the outside stands out the most, bringing energy to the color scheme. In the image below, the letter T is in the middle representing TCCMC. This is for our benefit here on Earth and for those of us who use the Latin alphabet. On other planets that use different alphabets, the letter or symbol corresponding to the “T” sound, or Tshutsi symbol, would be shown.
The logos are embedded on the cognichips and on products as well, and because of the variety of languages and writing systems, collecting cognichips and products with different versions of the logo is a hobby for many people, similar to stamp collecting. Everyone might have a Dominion logo due to how many people live in the Dominion–we are talking trillions with a capital T–but if you have a Sinitian one, you’re set! You could resale that for a barrel of irrium or more!
Overall, the logo combines a technology-based shape with natural colors, all while maintaining neutral tones other than the pop of gold that shows the energy and spirit of the company. All of this fits with the goals of the company, and the TCCMC logo in all of its variations is recognized as a symbol of quality across known space.
An Ongoing Campaign
After that initial ad, the marketing team got to work. Tthakira recorded thousands upon thousands of ads in her over 70 years as president, and the audience and market for each was fairly unique. Some were played in particular nations only and highlighted the values, peoples, and beliefs of that particular nation, for example Raixhen ads highlighting the courage of their founding trio; some were directed at particular planets or political situations, for example ads about election security and the importance of democracy; some related to life situations, such as the death of a loved one or even pet ownership; and some were directed towards her own people and workers, for example highlighting the company’s emphasis on safety and security. In addition, several ads were designed to quell rumors or address concerns when scandals involving her or the company broke out.
However, through it all, every single ad reflected her own personal beliefs, and she never took a stance that violated her core belief system. There were certain lines she refused to cross even though the neutrality of her company was one of the most significant elements each ad aimed to enforce. Neutrality didn’t mean silence in the face of evil for her even as she made sure not to take a concrete stance in ongoing rivalries and conflicts. No matter the cost, she made sure humanitarian causes were championed, for that is what she believed in.
When one journalist tried to make her lifestyle and beliefs into an issue, she had a perfect response:
Interviewer: What do you say about the people that think your ads are nothing but propaganda to forward your messages and make you rich?
Tthakira: Well, that is two questions disguised as one. For those that think I am using it to make myself richer, I advise them to look into how much I earn and retell it to my face. (Tthakira interweaves her fingers and leans back) As for the first one, well, if you think it is propaganda to tell people to stand up, be hopeful, feel good about themselves, all the positive things that I stand for and will not back down from, guilty as charged.
“Respecting Cultures”
This ad is the 57th ad that Vivian and I created and is the third in the “Respecting Cultures” series. I designed this ad entirely, and I’ll be expanding on the original to make it a full-fleshed advertisement that can be analyzed. As you can see, certain topics had multiple ads relating to them, and our spreadsheet of ads is quite complex!
Rhetorical Situation
Because Stellima has so many varied cultures and peoples (Vivian: ALMOST LIKE SPECIES, PEOPLE, AND CULTURES HAVE VARIANCES WITHIN THEMSELVES! LIKE GOOD WORLDBUILDING!), and because most of them became unified to some degree thanks to the cognisphere, culture was a major concern, especially for planets and systems first considering whether or not to accept the cognisphere (there were very negative consequences to not accepting it so almost everyone did, but there were still concerns!). (Vivian: Oh look… free planets to grab…) This ad was aimed at those people who worried that adoption of the cognisphere would lessen their culture. Importantly, it’s aimed at people who want to preserve their culture and addresses the concern that the cognisphere will hurt culture by showing the concrete ways it can actually help.
The purpose of this ad is to show how the cognisphere can preserve culture, and it was shown widely on planets where this was a concern. On planets where the cognisphere hadn’t been adopted yet, TCCMC worked with local, friendly media organizations to translate it into their media systems.
Disclaimer: I’m basing the culture shown here on Native Americans in America, mostly because I’m, well, American, and because I’m familiar with the various movements to reclaim their culture (which is awesome and exciting!). So while this may appear stereotypical, I hope you can forgive it as it is loosely based on Earth. Anyway, it’s ad time!
Walkthrough
The ad opens with a scene from a quiet village with square buildings made of adobe and thick wooden posts studding the tops and wooden ladders leaning against them, similar to Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest. The shot is wide and shows a large swath of buildings with people in front. In the center, in focus, is an elderly woman in traditional garb on the left talking to a previous president of TCCMC on the right, recognizable from the green jacket with the TCCMC logo on it. Several other people in TCCMC uniforms stand nearby on the right side of the screen talking to locals in traditional garb. The picture is designed to look old, in sepia tones and with scratch marks occasionally as happened with the media on the planet at the time. To the local population, this would be instantly recognizable as intended to be quite old. The music is traditional, complex drumming with no melody. The players are seen on the left hand side of the screen, some sitting and cradling drums, some standing with larger drums. A few other musicians with other instruments are standing around but not playing yet. The lighting is bright and unforgiving with high contrast and dark shadows.
After an establishing shot, there’s a hard cut to a medium shot of the elderly woman and the president from the waist up with no other people present. The elderly woman’s brows are drawn.
Elderly woman, in a voice of concern: “I worry that my culture will vanish. So few people care about tradition even here, and with even more exposure to different cultures…”
The president pulls an early link from his jacket, the link appearing like an early cell phone except that it’s built with cognichips and connects to the cognisphere. The TCCMC logo is clearly visible on it.
President: “Here.”
She takes the link and examines it. The shot widens to include the musicians as a flute player begins playing the company melody in time with the drums, creating a more positive mood.
President: “Record your knowledge, and be the one that makes certain that your culture is never forgotten into the farthest reaches of the future.”
A hard cut switches to the elderly woman sitting with the musicians, who now also have a stringed instrument playing the chord progression instantly recognizable as TCCMC’s. In front of her, a group of older people dance a traditional dance, and she’s giving instructions on how to do it. After just enough dialogue to ensure that the audience understands she’s giving instructions, the scene has a hard cut to present day.
The picture clears into a modern city with three teenagers sitting around a link at a park table. The elderly woman’s voice continues uninterrupted from the previous scene, but now the music has a modern flare, with reduced drumming and modern, almost techno instruments and beat. The image is clear, with greens and browns primary, and no longer looks old-fashioned. The teens listen for a moment, then get up and attempt the dance. They quickly and obviously mess up as two run into each other, and they start laughing. One returns to the link and goes back to the beginning of the recording.
As they listen again, Tthakira walks into the foreground of the scene. The shot focuses on her, with the background slightly blurred, and the melody in the music becomes more prominent. She pauses and looks at the camera.
Tthakira, in a friendly voice: “The knowledge of our elders passes down to future generations.”
The background comes into focus to reveal the teens dancing exactly as the people in the older shot did, clearly getting it right. They stop and congratulate each other, looking delighted. In the foreground, Tthakira looks back at them, smiles, then turns back to the camera.
Tthakira: “Trust preserves cultures.”
The scene remains for another beat as the teens high five and Tthakira looks back again, still smiling, then fades to black as the TCCMC logo appears large and centered on the screen. The music comes to a triumphant close, then it and the logo fade as the ad ends.
Explanation
As you can see from the final “Trust X,” this ad is all about how TCCMC helps preserve cultures, which most people would agree is a good thing. Aligning the company with preserving cultures reassures potential consumers that they won’t get lost or assimilated into the greater universe and can use the new technology to preserve their traditions. Although technology is vital to surviving and adapting to the modern world, the past and past culture is what makes a people unique and gives a sense of identity. Showing that the two can work together is vital in encouraging people to embrace TCCMC instead of rejecting it.
This idea is directly shown in the actions of the ad, with the elderly woman recording the instructions and then, far in the future, young people embracing those instructions and successfully recreating their ancestry. The characters reflect the audience as well, with the native species reflecting the planet that this is aimed towards. The company reused this ad for different planets, all featuring actors from those specific species and traditional activities and traditions from those cultures, in order to tailor it further. Because all of the native characters are in the background, Tthakira only recorded her part once, but she personally approved every variation. This customization, which some might argue is impersonal, actually improved relations with each planet even after it became known that TCCMC was essentially reusing ads, because it showed that they valued every single planet and people as unique. While the structure and Tthakira’s role were identical, everything else about the ad reflected the unique people being appealed to and that further strengthened the ad’s message that trust preserves cultures.
In terms of the creative elements, we see two primary scenes: first, the old-fashioned scene from the past with distinctive coloring, image quality, character dress, and music. All of this creates a sense of the past that is at risk of being lost. This is in contrast to the present, where the colors shift to natural hues, the image quality improves, the characters adopt modern clothing, and the music becomes modern. The unifying element between them is the elderly woman’s voice, showing clearly how the cognisphere connects past and present. The use of these elements to further the message of the ad is a key reason that the ad was successful.
Even though most planets joined the cognisphere for political and military reasons, TCCMC’s hard work showing their respect for existing cultures and people made the transition easy for most people, and again, Tthakira continues to use herself, her name, and her person as something to anchor all the ads and stances of the company together, building trust and ethos and establishing the company and Tthakira as people to believe in.
The End of an Era
The “Trust X” campaign continued for the over 70 years of Tthakira’s time as president of TCCMC. Under her, the company became a household name, and company profits rose to unbelievable heights. Some members of the board questioned her continued involvement in the campaign, and some accusations of vanity were floated, but Tthakira addressed them both through ads and in person. Because she could point to the company’s success as a direct result of the ad campaign and also show how it was her presence that drove that campaign, she persuaded all that the campaign was to the continued benefit of the company. In regards to accusations that she made the ads to flatter her ego, her response was simple: “Ego is simple to satisfy, life and meaning are harder, and I like a challenge.”
As she grew older, she began having health issues that occasionally made recording new ads difficult, though she didn’t let that slow her down. She hid the extent of her problems, and very few people even knew anything was wrong beyond her family who continued to tell her to stop. Not even her children–two now firmly established in the company hierarchy based on their own merit–knew the full extent, though she confided in her husband. Doctors were at first optimistic, but soon it became clear that she was on borrowed time. After all, time takes its toll on everyone.
She knew that her death would not only have ramifications for the company, but also for the people who had been with her for the past 70 years, seeing her and getting to know her. Many people felt intensely connected to her, feeling like she was a friend or at least acquaintance. TCCMC’s ads were so well-established in popular culture that people built careers imitating or even subverting them. One of her favorite hobbies was checking in on CMCCT, a group that produced what they called “Anti-Trust” parody ads that showed an impersonator giving “Trust X” statements that went against the beliefs of her and the company. As she said in a conversation with a company spokeswoman, recorded and released after Tthakira’s death, “The fact that they can show our opposite demonstrates how well everyone understands our stances. I view it as a compliment, and it helps people as well.”
(Vivian: Her death is a future event for clarity; in present-day Stellima, it has yet to happen!)
Omega: “One Final Trust”
Tthakira knew that she couldn’t leave her audience abruptly. It was her responsibility to close the ad campaign on a definite note of closure, and she also had a personal message to the broad audience who completed her life as much as those close to her, revealed in her final “Trust X.” Without the knowledge of the broader marketing team, she selected a few people to create a final ad to be played after her death. Just like with the initial ad, this was kept secret until its release, and had an equally significant impact. While she is believed to have recorded many variations of the final ad, this was the only ad aired after her death. We don’t have any proof of other variations, just the knowledge of how thorough she was. The team who worked with her kept her secrets until the end.
Rhetorical Situation
Most ads have a narrow focus. As I rant about in the advertisement post, you shouldn’t design an ad for everyone. It becomes almost meaningless! This ad, however, is much broader than most TCCMC ads. You can see from the Respecting Culture ad how targeted the company was. This ad, on the other hand, has an audience united by one thing: their love of Tthakira. The audience is assumed to be adults who have seen the ads all or at least most of their lives and become familiar with her, though it can appeal to other age groups as well as long as they have that experience of knowing her through her ads. The intended audience ranges from her rabid fans to those only loosely familiar, but is aimed in particular at those who care about her and feel a connection to her as a person, not just the company.
While most ads had targeted releases on particular planets or particular types of media, this ad was shown broadly across known space and on a variety of media. The ad was first shown simultaneously everywhere, though because of time differences, it wasn’t widely seen by everyone at the same time. Shockwaves rippled through known space quickly, and rather than wait to see the ad air naturally, many people went directly to view the ad on the company cognisite, which, despite the advanced technology supporting it, only barely managed the traffic.
Walkthrough
The ad opens in TCCMC headquarters with Tthakira dressed in her typical green jacket that audiences have come to expect. The colors are almost grayscale and dark, with highlighted shadows and dim lighting. It appears to be night, and two moons are visible in the window as she walks down a hallway. The traditional TCCMC melody and chord progression play, but it’s slow and dramatic. In fact, audiences might not even recognize the chord progression until the third or fourth slow beat. Vivian found a song similar to what the music sounds like, though the chord progression and melody are obviously different. Check it out to see the melancholy and wistful tone the ad seeks to achieve:
As Tthakira walks, the camera zooms into a medium shot of her from the waist up. She stands beside a window with the two moons, one centered and full, the other a crescent at the right edge of the image. She rests her hand on the windowpane, then looks back at the camera.
Tthakira, in a confident but soft voice: “Everything has to come to an end. Even me.”
Hard cut to a wide shot of her in the boardroom where she was first voted into power, now dark and empty. The moons are still reflected in smaller windows. The colors, darkness, and music continue from the last scene. She walks to where she gave her first speech and stands staring at the camera in an exact imitation of the very first ad.
Tthakira: “After me, there will be someone just as good if I have done my job.”
Hard cut to a close, shoulders-up shot aimed at her from the right side. She turns to the camera and smiles as the music swells.
Tthakira: “Trust my legacy. Trust carries on.”
The image fades to black, with her image lingering the longest and the background fading to a ghostly grayscale white before also fading, giving the impression of a ghost as she turns and walks into the background. The word “Farewell” appears in a sans serif white font that is commonly used in TCCMC ads.
Thakira, in a softer but still confident voice: “Farewell.”
The word fades, replaced by “Thank you for your trust.”
Thakira, as the music softens and turns melancholy: “Thank you for your trust.”
A reed instrument plays the company melody one last time, then the words and music fade. And thus ends the final ad.
Explanation
Are you in tears? I’m in tears. Well, I guess you might not be the intended audience, as you haven’t seen and created hundreds of her slogans and ads like me and Vivian or, as the Stellima audience has, seen thousands of these ads over your lifetime. Your investment might not be the same as mine or the rest of the intended audience. But trust me, this hits like a brick.
(Vivian: A megaton brick. Imagine yourself having seen her for most of your life. On and off, her ads have played as you watched things on your link. You’ve formed a parasocial relationship with her, and suddenly it comes that she’ll never be again? It hurts.)
Anyway, I think I can pull myself together to talk about why exactly this ad is so emotional. While emotion is a common element of ads, and you can see it in the previous ads, it really gets emphasized in this last ad. She’s no longer marketing here, she’s saying goodbye. This has nothing to do with the company, shown in the fact that the company logo doesn’t show up at the end as it does in most ads. This is all about her recognizing her audience and genuinely thanking them on an individual, personal level. This ad is about Tthakira, not TCCMC. She’s accomplished everything she could ever hope to achieve, and has nothing left to gain. So now, she finally passes on the torch and can rest.
The creative elements strongly support the overall purpose of saying goodbye and acknowledging the love she’s received over the decades. The dark colors, combined with the ghost effect at the end, clearly show that she’s at the end, but her confident voice and words show that she isn’t afraid and instead appreciative and confident that her legacy and company will continue to thrive. The music incorporates the traditional melody, but focuses more heavily on the chords, and differs from many of the versions of the song that appear in other ads. And of course the mirrored shot from her first ad is a clear reference not only to her beginning–showing her reflecting on her past and acknowledging it–but also, when combined with her words, showing her faith that the next person to stand there and take her place will succeed just as she did.
One huge departure from every other ad comes with the final words. Throughout the “Trust X” campaign, every single ad ended with a “Trust X” statement that differed in each ad. In this ad, we get two “Trust X” statements, and they aren’t the last words. Putting them earlier places more attention on them, as the audience instantly recognizes this as different. The two statements about legacy and carrying on give the audience hope, both acknowledging their loss and showing that her influence will continue to live on, and so too can the audience live on. The final words completely break the pattern because they’re no longer part of the campaign but a sincere message from her to her audience. It uses “trust,” but reverses it. Instead of telling other people to trust, she thanks people for their trust in her, again acknowledging their investment in her and thanking them for it. This is an intimate moment for the audience, giving them one last personal connection with a person who has become part of their lives.
Overall, this ad breaks several elements traditional to the ads, such as the logo and final words, but preserves the heart of the campaign. The changes serve to highlight the core of this message, which is a personal farewell, and the way that it preserves the campaign celebrates everything that Tthakira stood for in her life. It is both a continuation of the campaign and a triumphant but bittersweet ending, and audiences were moved. On many planets, funeral ceremonies were held simultaneously with the ceremony on Tetshutsi, the planet where TCCMC headquarters is.
The almost universal mourning was unprecedented, as almost no other figure in Stellima history had the range and sway that she did. One Limax who had seen her ads all of zhir life talked about Tthakira’s influence on zhir life for a documentary celebrating her made on the fifth anniversary of her death:
“She was part of my family. I saw her every day. More than that, she was a role model. I knew what she believed, and she was never afraid to say it. That gave me courage to be myself and stand up for what I thought was right. I wouldn’t be the person I am today if it weren’t for her.”
As you can see, this ad had a huge impact, and that’s just the immediate impact! As Stellima moved further and further out, her influence only continued.
Aftermath
In the end, Tthakira’s campaign proved to be a huge success. On the hundredth anniversary of the final ad airing and over a hundred and seventy years after the first, the Tshutsi Independent Press published a follow up article to their initial analysis completed at the time, talking to historians about the cultural impact. All shared the unanimous opinion that the campaign was monumental, with one historian summing it up perfectly: “[Tthakira] changed the landscape of advertising forever. Companies have tried for that level of success since then, but no one has managed it. It’s an unimaginable feat, and Tthakira stands out as one of the greatest figures of that era.”
In the end, people continue to speculate whether it was something about her person and personality that allowed this monumental moment to happen. Some claim it was random chance and fortune, some credit it to savvy choices in music and design in the initial ad, and some say it was just a great slogan that anyone could have pulled off. The fact that it has never been repeated says a lot. You can judge for yourself the cause of the success because the real reason can never be fully known.
In the end, an era concludes.
Summa Summarum
Can you tell that Vivian and I adore this ad campaign and are continuing to have a lot of fun with it? This is something you can do in your stories! This whole thing started when Vivian asked me to design an ad for TCCMC from scratch. All I knew was that the company made cognichips. We had literally nothing else decided about this company. I ended by incorporating trust as a major element, but not a “Trust X” statement. He asked for another–I should add that I was also doing this for selfish reasons as I plan to use these ads as examples in one of my class lessons on designing ads–and in the next one, I did end on a “Trust X” statement. We really liked that, and soon it became a thing. You should see our list of “Trust X” statements. It’s overwhelming. We don’t have ads for all of them yet, but we have soooo many ads and we keep adding.
As we added those initial ads, we soon came up with Tthakira. She wasn’t in the first couple of ads. Well, as soon as she showed up, the ad campaign really took off, and we dove into how this related to the broader universe. We’ve developed not just the company, but also the world and nation where it’s centered and how the company relates to the government, since TCCMC is such a huge economic force. And Tthakira, well, if she wanted, she could easily take over the government! So we started adding protections against that, then we got into how this all relates to the current story…
(Vivian: Certainly made the world feel more lived in with them being defined! Both TCCMC and Tthakira!)
As you can see, advertising can help your worldbuilding so much! I highly recommend that even if ads aren’t going to be a major part of your story, you play around with them. Who knows? You might stumble upon something that influences every aspect of your world! And you may even end up creating a character like Tthakira who you genuinely grow to love, and then mourn her inevitable death while making sure that the entire known universe feels the same.
Vivian, do you have any final thoughts on the experience of creating this ad campaign and Tthakira as a character?
(Vivian:) It is among the dumbest things I’ve ever built, and I love every moment of it because as dumb as it is, it is part of the real world and makes the world feel so much more alive.
(Anne:) Good luck to all you readers, and if you have comments or suggestions for this ad campaign or want to share your own, we would absolutely love to hear it!
Want to dive into a discussion about Stellima or the art of writing on Discord? We’d love to have you! And if you have any topics you struggle with or that you would like to suggest for a future blogpost, we’re open to suggestions!
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Copyright ©️ 2023 Anne Winchell and Vivian Sayan. Original ideas belong to the respective authors. All ideas, characters, the “Trust X” slogan and structure, and all worldbuilding are protected IP and copyrighted by Vivian Sayan. The ads themselves, both in concept and written description, the analysis, plus the writing and exact phrasing of this blogpost are copyrighted by Anne Winchell. Contact them for information on usage and any questions. Please contact the authors through this website’s contact page.
We at Stellima value human creativity but are exploring ways AI can be ethically used. Please read our policy on AI and know that every word in the blog is written and edited by humans or aliens.
